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United States
New Tariffs Imposed
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new executive order unveiling a broad set of tariffs targeting nearly 70 countries. The rates announced by the White House are primarily a revision of those set under Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff plan. The tariffs, ranging from 10% to 41%, will take effect from August 7. Syria (41%), Laos (40%), and Myanmar (40%) face the highest rates, while Brazil is subject to a combined 50% tariff due to an earlier 40% duty added to the new 10% baseline. Tariffs for countries like Cambodia (19%), Thailand (19%), Vietnam (20%), and Japan (15%) have been reduced through recent negotiations. China, Canada, and Mexico are exempt under separate executive orders. New 15% tariffs were also introduced for Bolivia, Ecuador, Ghana, and Iceland as part of a push toward what the administration calls a “new system of trade.” Countries not specifically included in the list will be facing a 10% tariff.
This map depicts the global distribution of tariff rates set to take effect on August 7, ranging from 10% to 50%. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Newsweek
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United States
Texas Redistricting
Texas legislators are convening for a special session to redraw the state’s congressional maps, following the Justice Department declaration that some Texas congressional districts were racial gerrymanders. Congressional maps are re-drawn after every 10-year census to account for population changes and to ensure that districts have roughly the same number of residents. Texas Democrats have argued that the proposed districts are examples of “cracking,” where gerrymandering breaks apart a region with a high concentration of one party’s voters and spreads them out. The new district plans have also been accused of cutting into majority Black and Hispanic districts in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
This map depicts the current Texas congressional map in comparison to the proposed congressional map. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: New York Times
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China
Potatoes Evolved From Tomatoes
A new study from a team at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has traced the origins of the modern potato to a crossbreeding event with a tomato plant, which occurred around 9 million years ago in the South America’s Andes mountains. Evolutionary biologists and genomic scientists analyzed 450 genomes from both cultivated and wild potato species. The results revealed that an ancient ancestor of the wild tomato plant naturally bred with a plant called Etuberosum, the precursor to the modern potato. This new hybrid had the ability to grow tubers – the enlarged, edible part of the plant which grow underground, unlike tomatoes or Etuberosums. The study also decoded which genes were supplied by each ancient plant to create the new tuber-producer. This understanding could help scientists breed potatoes more resistant to disease and climate change in the future.
This map depicts the geographic distribution of Petota (Potato) (golden dots), Tomato (red dots), and Etuberosum (blue dots), based on verified georeferenced collection records. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What boundary line separates the biogeographic realms of Asia and Oceania, with distinct populations of animal species in each respective region?
A: Wallace Line
The Wallace Line is a transitional zone first mapped in 1863 by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallce. The line crosses the Malay Archipelago and the Indo-Australian Archipelago. Dubbed “the line that most animals don’t cross,” the Wallace Line separates the Sunda Shelf—containing Borneo, Bali, Java, and Sumatra—from the Sahul Shelf—containing Australia and New Guinea. Lower sea levels exposed land bridges between some islands, but not between Asia and Australia. The deep-water channel between the two shelves functioned as a barrier for more than 50 million years. This barrier created the distinct Wallacea region, whose islands are populated only by organisms able to cross the straits between islands.
Source
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Q: Which island off the coast of Africa is nicknamed the “Island of Death”?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in Monday’s DailyGeo.
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